Chances are some of us (especially if you’re black) have or will see the inside of a cell at some point in your life. My time came in the form of NYC Central Bookings for an incident I won’t go into. But most of us will never experience the horrors of a maximum federal lockup like never will see the inside of a cell like the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, KS. That’s the reality facing Michael Vick. However he’s not alone. Byron “Bam” Morris, a former Chiefs running back was sentenced to 30 months there after he pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking in 2000.

“He’s got to just stay to himself and swallow it,” he says in an interview with the the Kansas City Star. “If you interact with everybody, eventually something’s going to happen. Because everybody wanna try the football player.”

The article is one of the most gripping tales depicting what its like inside of one of the nations most feared Federal lockups. You can check out the full interview here but here’s just a taste.

Every night at 10 p.m., when the cell bars locked and the lights went out, Morris got on his knees, put his palms together and thanked God that another day of the worst three years of his life was over.

There is a code among some prisoners that they don’t talk about their cases. Problem was, everybody knew about Morris’ case because it was all over the newspaper, all over the television. Multiply that by a million, and you’re in Vick’s neighborhood.

“The guards tell you from the jump, because you’re a football player, you’re not getting preferential,” Morris says. “It seems like it’s the opposite. It seems like you get treated worse because you’re an athlete. They look at an ex-football player coming in, millions of dollars, and the first thing they can say, ‘He’s dumb, that was stupid, him doing that.’

“The guard doesn’t understand how in the hell can you be caught up in certain situations when you have all this money and they have to work for theirs. There’s jealousy from that standpoint, and you will automatically find out which guards don’t like you and you’ll stay away from them.”

Morris quit watching football completely in prison-college or pro. Says it depressed him, knowing what he was missing… “I always told them the same thing,” Morris says. “I said, ‘Look, bruh. I’m in prison just like you. I got a number just like you. I don’t want to talk football. When I get out, you send me your address, I’ll send a card to your son or something. But I’m not trying to sign autographs. I’m not trying to make any friends here.’”